Go to home70Mil BC A dinosaur species,
later (2010) named Kosmoceratops (ornate horned-face), thrived in
Utah about this time. It had 15 horns decorating its massive head,
giving it the most elaborate dinosaur headdress known to science.
Another species in Utah from this time, later (2010) named
Utahceratops (Utah horned-face), was roughly 20 feet long and
weighed 3 to 4 tons.
(http://tinyurl.com/25c48yu)
70Mil BC The triangular continental plate we know
as the subcontinent was once part of Antarctica. Some seventy
million years ago it began drifting northward toward Asia.
(NH, 5/96, p.10)
70Mil BC In 2004 scientists reported the discovery
in Antarctica of a small meat-eating therapod dinosaur from this
time.
(SFC, 2/27/04, p.A2)
70Mil BC In 2008 a Canadian researcher reported
what is believed to be North America's smallest dinosaur, a
70-million-year-old chicken-sized beast that was also unusual for
its diet of insects. Its bones were excavated near Red Deer, in
fossil-rich Alberta, in 2002 among about 20 Albertosaurus remains,
and went unnoticed.
(AP, 9/24/08)
70Mil BC The North Atlantic and Greenland ridges,
Iceland and other islands are all made up of rocks younger than 70
million years. This date seems to mark the time till which Laurasia
was intact.
(DD-EVTT, p.202)
70Mil BC In Madagascar A frog lived in Madagascar
about this time that grew to 16 inches in length and weighed 10
pounds. In 1993 paleontologist David Krause began to find fossils of
the frog.
(SFC, 2/19/08, p.A8)
70Mil BC The giant Mosasaurus reptile head, found
in the Netherlands near Maastricht in 1794, roamed the seas about
this time.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
70Mil BC Skulls of Mongolian fossil birds from
this time were found c1997 in the Gobi desert. They were named
Shuvuui deserti. The skeleton was that of a bird but the stubby arms
indicated that it could not have flown. A fossil bird from
Madagascar that lived about this time was also reported found and
named Rahona ostromi.
(SFC, 3/19/98, p.A1,9)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A8)
70Mil BC A skeleton of Tyrannosaurus bataars,
dating to this time, was first discovered in 1946 during a joint
Soviet-Mongolian expedition in Mongolia’s Omnogovi Province.
(SFC, 6/20/12, p.A8)
70Mil BC In 2006 scientists in Mongolia uncovered
a chunk of sandstone dating to this time, which contained the almost
complete skeleton of a Tarbosaurus dinosaur, related to the giant
carnivorous Tyrannosaurus.
(AP, 7/24/08)

70Mil BC - 65Mil BC The Wangshi Formation in
China’s Shandong Province contains a site with T-Rex dinosaur eggs
(Tarbosaurus to the Chinese). The eggs measure as much as 18 inches
long. Tyrannosaurus (terrible lizard) was first identified in 1905
by H.F. Osborn.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.5)
70Mil BC - 65Mil BC Boundary of the
Cretaceous-Tertiary zones. This is the period in which the dinosaurs
become extinct. A theory by Louis Alvarez and others in 1980AD
proposes that the earth was impacted by a large meteor around this
time that caused worldwide darkness, massive deforestation from
fire, an enormous amount of soot, prolonged cold, and a severe
depletion of atmospheric oxygen that lasted months. Lack of sunlight
would have also caused the death of photoplankton in the oceans and
an oxygen drop in the oceans. The theory is supported by a thin
layer of dark clay containing iridium, an element more common in
meteors than on the surface of the earth, that has been found in a
number of locations around the world.
(TMP, KCTS-Video, 1987)
70Mil BC - 65Mil BC The earliest fossil of a
modern land bird was found in eastern Montana in the 1960s. More
primitive birds with teeth did not survive the Great Extinction.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.A6)

70Mil BC - 2Mil BC Tertiary period. The Atlantic
widened, the Rockies were raised, the Himalayas were formed, and the
Alps formed in that order.
(DD-EVTT, p.21)
Early Tertiary rocks form some of the ridges that
encircle Mt. Diablo, Ca.
(GH-ADH, p.23)

70Mil BC - Present. Cainozoic Era. Age of
mammals, marsupials and placentals, begins.
(DD-EVTT, p.21,295)
The Cainozoic might be called the ‘Age of Bony
Fishes.’
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
The squid, octopus and nautilus are the only
Cainozoic representatives of the once great house of the
cephalopods.
(DD-EVTT, p.294)

68Mil BC Fossils of a Tyrannosaurus rex from this
time were found in the Hell Creek formation of Montana in 2003. In
2005 scientists reported that a femur contained soft tissue. In 2007
researchers sequenced amino acids in the tissue and reported that
they matched those of modern chickens. Some sequences matched those
of a newt, a frog and several other animals. In 2008 researchers
said modern bacterial colonies had infiltrated cavities in the bone.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.A2)(SFC, 4/13/07, p.A6)(SFC,
7/31/08, p.A15)

67.5Mil BC A pulse of volcanic eruptions
began about this time in the Deccan area of
India. A 2nd pulse took place around 65 million BC and a 3rd about
100,000 years later. These were later believed to have contributed
to the extinction of dinosaurs due to their heavy release of sulfur
dioxide.
(SFC, 12/16/08, p.A4)

67Mil BC The remains of the hadrosaur, dubbed
Dakota and dating to about this time, were found in 1999 by Tyler
Lyson (17), on his uncle's ranch in North Dakota. The partially
mummified hadrosaur may be the most complete dinosaur ever found,
with intact skin that shows evidence of stripes and perhaps soft
tissue.
(Reuters, 12/3/07)(SFC, 12/3/07, p.A7)
67Mil BC In 1987 scientists in India found the
fossilized remains of an 11½-foot snake, dating to about this time,
coiled around a dinosaur egg.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A3)

66.038Mil BC About this time a comet struck the
area of the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and created a crater, known
today as Chicxulub, about 150-180 miles (200 km) in diameter. The
area at this time was covered by ocean. The asteroid was initially
believed to have been 6-12 miles (10 km) in diameter. It left a thin
layer of iridium in rock strata around the world. Evidence for this
was gathered by Luis Alvarez. The asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs,
about 80% of the world’s plants species and all animals bigger than
a cat. In 2002 it also was estimated to have wiped out 55-60% of the
plant-eating insects. A high oxygen level may have contributed to a
worldwide firestorm. In 1997 Walter Alvarez published "T. Rex and
the Crater of Doom," an account of this critical event. The impact
was estimated at 5 billion times greater than the atomic bombs of WW
II. In 2007 US and Czech researchers used computer simulations to
calculate that there was a 90 percent probability that the collision
of two asteroids in 160 Mil BC was the event that precipitated the
Chicxulub disaster. In 2008 new research using an osmium isotope
indicated that the responsible asteroid was about 2.5 miles wide. In
2013 scientists said this date was accurate to give or take 11,000
years.
(SFC, 2/18/96, p.A3)(SFEC, 8/17/97, BR p.7)(NH,
9/97, p.85)(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A4)(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)(Reuters,
9/5/07)(SFC, 4/12/08, p.A4)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A1)

66Mil BC Early primates made their appearance
about this time.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A17)
66Mil BC Scientists in 2000 reported that the 66
million-year-old plant-eating dinosaur, Thescelosaurus (marvelous
lizard), had a 4-chambered heart and was likely warm-blooded.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A1)

65.7Mil BC Some animal species began to suffer and
a few went extinct.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.B1)

65Mil BC The K-T boundary during which the
Cretaceous gave way to the Tertiary.
(SFC, 12/20/00, p.A4)
65Mil BC Argentinasaurus, a 120 foot, 100 ton
dinosaur lived during this time in South America.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)
65Mil BC Placental mammals, 16 or so orders,
started to diversify after the demise of the dinosaurs.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.46)
65Mil BC Tyrannosaurus rex, a 40-50 foot, 6 ton
dinosaur teeth up to 13 inches long lived during this time in North
America. A 50-foot female T. rex of about this age was discovered on
a Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson in
1990. The government seized the skeleton in 1992 and in 1997 it was
put up for auction by Sotheby’s on behalf of Maurice Williams, a
Sioux Indian and owner of the ranch where it was found. The proceeds
were to be held in trust by the government.
(http://tinyurl.com/r6kp2)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A13)
65Mil BC T. rex "Sue" ate a Duckbill dinosaur
about this time and was herself mauled by another T. rex in South
Dakota. She died in a slow moving stream near the shore of a vast
inland sea that bisected North America, and was buried under a
protective layer of sand.
(SFC,12/897, p.A4)
65Mil BC In 2003 US and Indian scientists reported
on a new dinosaur species from western India from this time. They
named it Rajasaurus narmadensis, or "Regal reptile from the
Narmada," after the Narmada River region where the bones were found.
(AP, 8/13/03)
65Mil BC Evidence in 2009 suggested that an object
some 40km in diameter hit the Earth off the coast if India about
this time and forced vast quantities of lava out of the Deccan
Traps. The impact was suggested to be responsible for breaking the
Seychelles away from India as well as for the dying off of
dinosaurs. This impact was named Shiva and is believed to have
coincided with the Chicxulub impact in the Yucatan.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.91)
65Mil BC In the early Paleocene a branch that led
to living Cetacea (whales) separated from the Condylartha branch
("knuckle-joints") of land mammals with hooves that led to
Artiodactyla (even-toed hoofed mammals).
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7)

65Mil BC - 21Mil BC Paleocene to early Miocene. A
long period of erosion worked across the west side of the Great
Valley (California). Within the valley early Tertiary seas
fluctuated widely. A seaway, (the Markley Strait) may have connected
the open sea with the Great Valley. It is possible that the Coast
Ranges consisted of a complex of islands at this time.
(GH-ADH, p.36)

64Mil BC - 40Mil BC Fossils from Ellesmere Island
in the Canadian Arctic (480 miles from the North Pole) indicate one
time warm temperatures with coal-like fallen redwoods, large lizards
and constrictor snakes, tortoises, alligators, tapirs, and flying
lemurs.
(NG, 6/1988, 757)

60Mil BC During the last 60 or so million years
the break-up of Pangaea continued with continents drifting
northwards and for the most part away from one another. The shapes
of the continents as we know them today began to clarify and the
great Alpine-Himalayan mountains rose from Tethys. In the Americas
the Cordilleran ranges of the west were pushed up and volcanoes
rumbled. For the first time New Zealand can be seen as a separate
entity, broken off as Australia moved northwards.
(DD-EVTT, p.204)
60Mil BC Fleas evolved as highly specialized
bloodsucking parasites at least 60 million years ago.
(NG, 5/88, p.675)
60Mil BC The Fossil Butte Member of the Green
River Formation in southwest Wyoming represents the remains of an
extinct tropical lake community that formed about this time and
lasted about 20 million years. It included Fossil lake, Lake Uinta,
and Lake Goshuite and covered parts of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.
(NH, 7/98, p.66)
60Mil BC The Antilles Islands [of the West Indies]
broke off from the Mesoamerican mainland about 60 million years ago.
(Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.15)
60Mil BC By the middle Paleocene on the branch
that led to living Cetacea there evolved the Mesonychia with
blunted, meat-eating dentition and a trotting gait. They were
possibly scavengers and are found on all northern continents. the
transition to whales began when mesonychians went into the water to
feed with a change in dentition. Next to change were the ears and
then the reduction of the sacrum for tail-powered swimming.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7,10)

60Mil BC - 40Mil BC The collision of the North
American and Pacific Farallon plate, began lifting the Sierra Nevada
about this time. The Clear Lake basin of California rose above sea
level. The rise of the Sierra Nevada continued for another 20
million years.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C8)(SSFC, 1/16/11, p.C2)(SFC,
5/8/12, p.A9)

58Mil BC - 60Mil BC Researchers in 2009 reported
that a snake named Titanoboa cerrejonensis (titanic boa from
Cerrejon) lived in Colombia about this time and stretched 42 to 45
feet long, reaching more than 2,500 pounds.
(AP, 2/4/09)

55.8Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported that a
small primate species, named Teilhardina magnoliana lived about this
time and inhabited what later became east-central Mississippi.
(SFC, 3/4/08, p.A15)

55Mil BC Arctic temperatures averaged 74 degrees.
This was part of a planet-wide warming period called the Paleocene
Eocene thermal Maximum (PETM).
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.A5)
55Mil BC An increase in temperature prompted a
major shift in plant distribution. In 2005 scientists reported that
Earth warmed 9 to 18 degrees over a 10,000 years to a warm period
that lasted 80-120 thousand years. Plants in the southern US spread
1,000 miles from the gulf Coast to Wyoming, and disappeared when the
climate cooled off. In 2007 scientists said that it took about
200,000 years for the atmospheric carbon from volcanic eruptions to
be transferred to the deep ocean, allowing the planet to cool.
(SFC, 11/11/05, p.A7)(SFC, 4/27/07, p.A9)
55Mil BC Alligators and palm trees inhabited
Wyoming during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.82)
55Mil BC Bony fish, initially fresh water
creatures, took to the sea about this time.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.82)
55 Mil BC Fast flying birds evolved about this
time and the size of insects began to shrink.
(SFC, 6/6/12, p.A9)
55Mil BC A tiny monkey-like creature lived in
central China about this time. Fossil evidence indicated that it’s
trunk was about 2.8 inches long. In 2013 the new species was named
Archibus achilles.
(SFC, 6/6/13, p.A9)(Econ, 6/8/13, p.82)

55Mil BC - 38Mil BC The Eocene
Epoch
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Road cuts California south of Antioch reservoir:
sandstone and shale. Road cuts in the vicinity of Woodside:
sandstone and shale. Early gold-bearing gravels in the Sierra
Nevada.
(GH-ADH, p.25)
Eocene rocks and fossils of Spitsbergen, now at
latitude 75 degrees north, tell us that the climate was warm or
sub-tropical, with coal swamps covering hundreds of square miles of
lowland. After the separation of Greenland from Scandinavia the
colder waters of the polar basin would have mingled with the North
Atlantic. The closed North Atlantic Ocean circulation was, by
linking with the polar basin, changed to a more productive system
for supporting a large and varied biota.
(DD-EVTT, p.285-286)
Even as early as the Eocene period there were
several kinds of whales, including a slender fearsomely toothed
beast (Zeuglodon), as much as 20 meters long.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
Daniel Axelrod (d.1998), paleobotonist, in 1998
published "Eocene of Thunder Mountain Flora of Central Idaho."
(SFC, 8/7/98, p.D3)

52Mil BC In 2008 the fossil of a bat from this
time indicated that it could fly but not navigate through
echolocation. It was found in Wyoming and scientists named it
Onychonycteridae finneyi, meaning clawed bat due to claws on all
five fingers.
(SFC, 2/14/08, p.A2)
52Mil BC Fossil Lake in south-west Wyoming dated
to about this time. It later become known for its millions of
fossils preserved in layers of limestone and volcanic ash. In 2009
scientists believed that repeated die outs in the lake were caused
by neurotoxins created by dinoflagellates.
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.99)

51Mil BC - 50Mil BC The first whales, the
Archeoceti, came from the late-early Eocene. The earliest of the
archeoceti are called pakicetids and are quite similar to
mesonychians. They were found in Pakistan with a land-mammal fauna
in continental deposits.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.7)

50Mil BC There was no ice on Earth’s north or
south poles.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC Placentals split into four superorders
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
50Mil BC The Tethys Sea southern edge was the
habitat of Pakicetus inachus, a small, land mammal (whale ancestor,
pakicetids) that walked on four legs and ate fish from the shallows
of the Tethys. This area is presently a rocky, mountainous desert in
Northern Pakistan. Pakicetus had ears apparently adapted for
underwater use.
(LSA., p. 36)(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.15)(SFC,
9/28/01, p.D5)
50Mil BC Australia's 50 million years of utter
isolation has led to the evolution of plant and animal life that is
different than life-forms in relatively nearby parts of the world.
(PacDis, Spring '94, p.3)
50Mil BC In 2008 a well-preserved skull of a bird,
named Dasornis emuinus, unearthed on the Isle of Sheppey, east of
London, was dated to 50 million years ago. Dasornis was said to have
been "like an ocean-going goose, almost the size of a small plane."
(AFP, 9/26/08)
50Mil BC The Fossil Butte Member of the Green
River Formation in southwest Wyoming represents the sedimentary
remains of an ancient lake community that dates to this time.
Crocodiles inhabited Wyoming.
(NH, 7/98, p.66)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC The dog traces its ancestry back to a
5-toed, weasel-like animal called Miacis, that lived about this
time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
50Mil BC The common ancestor of elephants and sea
cows lived about this time. Researchers in 1999 reported that
elephants showed evidence of an aquatic past and that their trunks
were probably used as snorkeling devices.
(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A8)
50Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported that
ancestral ant farmers emerged about this time. Over the next 25
million years they gave rise to at least 4 different farmer tribes.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)
50Mil BC A sheet of ice 2 miles thick covered
Scotland.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.11)
50Mil BC The Tibetan Plateau began to lift about
this time as India thrust northward. This led to the creation of the
Gobi Desert north of the plateau.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)

50Mil BC - 42Mil BC The Green River Formation
rocks are remnants of an ancient lake that covered more than 25,000
square miles of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Lake Uinta, Lake
Gosiute, and Fossil Lake were deposited in this period. The Green
River formation is known for deposits such as coal and oil shale,
and for limestone containing abundant fish fossils in mass mortality
layers. Fossils include the herring-like Knightia alta, and less
frequently, other fish such as Priscacara, Mioplosus, Phareodus, and
Diplomystus. Rare ancestral manta rays, palm leaves and birds have
also been found.
(SFME, 5/7/95, P.5)

49Mil BC A giant bloom of the Azolla fern at this
time coincided with one of the biggest climate shifts known. Surface
sea temperature in the Arctic dropped from 13°C to -9°C. In 2014
scientists suspected that the fern bloom was responsible for the
temperature drop as it pulled CO2 from the atmosphere.
(Econ, 6/21/14, p.78)
49Mil BC The Ambulocetus natans, a walking and
swimming whale, inhabited the warm seas which covered eastern
Pakistan. In 1996 fossils of the creature, about the size of a
modern sea lion, were found by paleontologist Hans Thewissen.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
49Mil BC The mountains in British Columbia had
already risen as high as 14,000 feet by this time.
(SSFC, 1/16/11, p.C2)
49Mil BC A spider from this time, a member of the
genus Eusparassus, showed its face to the world in 2011, as
scientists used high-tech X-ray methods to peer through the shroud
of amber encasing the fossilized arachnid.
(www.livescience.com/14261-49-million-year-spider-face.html)

48Mil BC Indohyus, a creature about the size of a
raccoon, lived about this time and spent much of its time in the
water. Fossils of Indohyus were later unearthed in Kashmir and
revealed evolutionary similarities to what later developed into the
earliest whales and dolphins.
(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A23)

48Mil BC - 46Mil BC Later protocetids that include
Protocetus atavus, found in Egypt, and Gaviacetus razai, found in
Pakistan, retained single sacral vertebrae that shows they had
highly mobile motive tails.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)

47.5Mil BC Fossils of whales dating to this time
were found in Pakistan in 2000 and 2004. The fossil of a pregnant
female indicated that these whales gave birth on land.
(LSA, Spring, 2009, p.9)

47Mil BC In 2009 Scientists in New York unveiled
the skeleton of what they said could be the common ancestor to
humans, apes and other primates. The tiny creature, officially known
as Darwinius masillae, but dubbed Ida, lived about this time and was
unusually well preserved. The monkey-like creature, discovered in
1983, was preserved through the ages in Germany's Messel Pit, a
crater rich in Eocene Epoch fossils. New analysis soon followed
saying Darwinius does not belong in the same primate category as
monkeys, apes and humans. Instead, the analysis concluded, it falls
into the other major grouping, which includes lemurs.
(AFP, 5/19/09)(AP, 10/21/09)

46Mil BC Rodhocetus kasrani, a whale that walked
on four legs on land, but swam with the undulating, up-and-down tail
motion. Fossil bones discovered in 1992 in Pakistan by U of Mich.
paleontologist Philip D. Gingerich and researchers from the
Geological Survey of Pakistan.
(LSA., S. Pobojewski, p. 36)

45Mil BC A planet-wide cooling period began that
led to cycles of ice ages.
(SFC, 6/1/06, p.A5)

42Mil BC Paleontologist Daniel Gebo announced in
2000 the discovery of bones from 2 tiny primates, the size of a
human thumb, that lived at this time in Shanghuang, China. The
Eosimias primates also lived here about this time.
(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A1)

42Mil BC A bird ancestral to the dodo flew from
Africa about this time to the Mascarene Islands east of Madagascar.
By 1681 the dodo was extinct.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A2)

40Mil BC The whale species Basilosaurus (king
lizard) isis was discovered in 1904. Paleontologists found bones of
this creature in the 1830s in Louisiana. Fossils were found by U of
Mich. paleontologist P.D. Gingerich in Egypt in 1989. With tiny hind
limbs too weak to support its body on land, Gingerich believes it
spent its entire life in the ocean. It reached about 40 feet.
(LSA., p. 36)(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.15,16)
40Mil BC In 2005 the successful excavation of an
unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton of the 40
million-year-old fossil whale Basilosaurus isis was completed in
Egypt. The 18 meter (50 feet) skeleton was found in Wadi Hitan in
the Western Sahara of Egypt. The first Basilosaurus fossil was found
in 1905 but no full skeleton has been discovered until now.
(MT, 4/05)
40Mil BC A whale fossil of this age was found in
May, 1983, along the Savannah River in Georgia.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A10)
40Mil BC Amber of the Baltic Sea formed about this
time.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.8)
40Mil BC A climate change caused the end of the
large lake system in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
(NH, 7/98, p.68)
40Mil BC The entire Tibetan Plateau underwent
major uplifting. Vast ranges rose from the Himalayas on the east to
Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush and Iran’s Elburz mountains on the west.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)

40Mil BC - 38Mil BC Dorudon atrox, dating to this
time, is a classic archeocyte. Fossils of the whale-like creature,
later found in the western desert of Egypt, indicated a broad skull
with multicusped molars, a streamlined body, forelimbs modified into
flippers and a massive tail. It was of the kind first reported from
scattered remains in farmfields of the southeastern US.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)(NG, 11/04, p.25)

40Mil BC - 5Mil BC The rigid rocks of the Sierra
Nevada, thrust upwards during periods estimated over this time, are
riding westward like a surfboard under the impact of the spreading
crust behind it.
(SFC, 5/3/96, A-4)

38Mil BC Fossils of jawbones and teeth, dubbed
Ganlea megacanina, dating to this time were found in 2005 near
Bagan, Myanmar. They suggested that the common ancestors of humans,
monkeys and apes, known as anthropoids, evolved from primates in
Asia, rather than Africa.
(AP, 7/1/09)

36Mil BC In 2005 scientists in Peru reported the
discovery of a giant penguin that lived about this time on the
Peruvian coastline. The bird was named Icadyptes salasi. It stood
over 5-feet and lived during one of the warmest periods of the
world’s history.
(SFC, 6/25/07, p.A10)

35.7Mil BC Two meteors impacted the Earth. One
landed in Siberia and the other in the Chesapeake Bay. A major
extinction also occurred about this time. [see 35 mil]
(NPR, Nature, 7/23/97)(SFEC, 8/22/99, Par p.12)

35Mil BC In Colorado, a dozen miles from Pike’s
Peak, a warm temperate climate supported forests of now-extinct
species of white-cedar, pine, palm, maple, hickory, and members of
the beech and elm family. Redwood trees grew along streams. Animals
included the piglike oreodont, rhinoceros like brontothere, and an
ancestor of the horse. Volcanic eruptions were common. Lake
Florissant formed from a mudflow that dammed a creek flowing through
a valley. It later a dried and provided evidence of 1,100 kinds of
insects, 16 vertebrates, and 150 species of plants.
(NH, 8/96, p.62)
35Mil BC The first evidence of human ancestry from
Africa dates to about this time. In 1998 John Reader published
"Africa: A Biography of a Continent."
(SFEC, 6/28/98, BR p.12)
35Mil BC A meteorite impacted at what is now
Chesapeake Bay and formed the largest impact crater in the US. The
discovery of the 53-mile wide Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater was
announced in 1995.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/7/05, p.A4)
35Mil BC The oldest mysticetes, filter-feeding
baleen whales with teeth (aetiocetids) instead of baleen, date to
about this time from Antarctica.
35Mil BC A volcanic range of Pacific islands east
of the Philippines was pushed up about this time and came to form
the archipelago of Palau.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.L4)

35Mil BC - 29Mil BC It was during the Oligocene
that the earliest mysticetes (filter feeders) and odontocetes
(echo-locating fish feeders) evolved from archeocetes. At this time
the circulation and the formation of water in the oceans changed
greatly. This altered the distribution of heat on the earth’s
surface and the global climate.
(LSA, Spg/97, p.8)

34Mil BC - 23Mil BC Indricotherium, a 15-foot tall
mammal, lived during this period. It was later said to be the
largest known mammal and related to the modern day rhinoceros.
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.C5)

34Mil BC - 24Mil BC The first termite farmers
evolved in the rain forests of Africa during this period.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)

33Mil BC Egypt’s Faiyum Depression shows sediments
of tropical rain forests. Aegyptopithecus, a small fruit eating
animal of the tropical forest of North Africa. Dubbed the "dawn-ape"
this animal's snout is lemur-like, but the enclosed eye-sockets and
certain dental features, including 32 teeth - typical of apes and
man - make it a likely link with Miocene apes such as Proconsul.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 563, 580)
33Mil BC Five types of mammal fossils have been
found in the Badlands of South Dakota. They are: Archaeotherium
(resembling but not related to a pig of warthog to hippo size),
Subhyracodon (an early relative of the rhinoceros), Mesohippus (a
three-toed horse), Leptomeryx (a small deer-like creature), and an
unidentified rodent.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.36)

32.5Mil BC During the mid-Cenozoic India
encountered the southern margin of Asia, and an open Tethys no
longer existed. The collision of India with Asia squeezed up the
Tethyan sediments into the arcs of the Himalayas.
(DD-EVTT, p.288)
A seaway linked the Arctic Ocean and Tethys east
of the Urals until Oligocene time when uplift and the closure of the
Tethyan geosyncline put an end to it. Siberia was from now on no
longer separated from Europe and when the climate began to cool the
very large land mass that was now Eurasia felt the extremes inherent
in a continental climate.
(DD-EVTT, p.290)
In late Eocene and early Oligocene times the
archaic mammals were largely replaced by the ancestors of our modern
mammals.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)

32Mil BC - 16Mil BC The South China Sea was
created over this period as the sea floor spread due to tectonic
plates moving apart.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.90)

>30Mil BC The Badlands of South Dakota was for
the most part a vast, featureless floodplain forged by wide,
slow-moving rivers from the west.
(Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.31)
>30Mil BC Wonder Cave near San Marcos, Texas,
was created on the Balcones fault line during an earthquake over 30
million years ago.
(Sp., 5/96, p.56)

~30Mil BC The Mendocino triple junction (MTJ), the
meeting of the Pacific, North American and Gorda plates, was born
about this time and began moving up the California coast. It was
later believed to be responsible for the northern California Coast
Range.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A6)
30Mil BC A giant snake, later named Yurlunggur,
lived in Australia about this time. In 2006 it was reported fossils
of the snake added a link to how snakes descended from dearly
lizards.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A4)
30Mil BC The hedgehog Proterix loomisi lived in
North America and had developed bony plates in its head for digging
and seems to have lacked limbs.
(NH, 7/98, p.56)
30Mil BC Sperm whale fossils date back to this
time.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)
30Mil BC By 30 million years ago the subcontinent
(India) reached what was the southern coast of Asia and began to
slide beneath it. This southern shore, once at sea level, took the
full force of the collision and is now the Karakorams, the Black
Gravel Range.
(NH, 5/96, p.10)
30Mil BC The Mendocino Triple Junction, a
convergence of three tectonic plates, the Gorda plate, Pacific plate
and North American plate, formed in Baha, California, when an ocean
spreading center in the Pacific plate collided with continent’s
edge. It now sits close to shore off of Cape Mendocino in Northern
California.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.4)
30Mil BC Fossils in Europe, Asia and North America
indicate that roses existed.
(TGR, 1995, p.1)
30Mil BC In what is now Cappadocia, Turkey, 3
volcanoes: Erciyes, Melendiz and Hasan, erupted. The ash and rock
later eroded and left the harder rock in formations now called
"fairy chimneys."
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.T14)
30Mil BC Camels and llamas split apart as species
about this time.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A15)

30Mil BC - 25Mil BC Lawrence Barnes and co-workers
uncovered an early baleen whale in rock of this age near Charleston,
South Carolina.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)

29Mil BC Movement within the San Andreas fault
system began in Southern California when the East Pacific Rise,
separating the Pacific and Farallon plates, reached the continental
border.
(GH-ADH, p.234)

27Mil BC Six species of prehistoric mammals from
this were discovered in 2003 in the Chilga region of Ethiopia's
northwestern highlands. They included 3 species of Palaeomastadon,
one species Deinotherium, one Gompotherium, and an example of
Arsinoitherium.
(SFC, 12/5/03, p.D5)

27Mil BC-24Mil BC A large penguin lived in New
Zealand during this time when the area was mostly underwater and
consisted of isolated, rocky outcrops that offered protection from
predators and plentiful food supplies. The first traces of the
penguin, dubbed Kairuku (Maori for diver who returns with food) was
found embedded in a cliff at Waimate in the South Island by
University of Otago paleontologist professor Ewen Fordyce in 1977.
(AFP, 2/28/12)

26Mil BC Two separate species of dodo bird evolved
about this time. One on Mauritius and the other on Rodrigues.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A2)

25Mil BC If there was any moment in the Cainazoic
when the mammals could be said to have reached their zenith, it
would be in the Miocene period, some 25 million years ago.
(DD-EVTT, p.296)
25Mil BC In 1997 a teenage surfer named Staumn
Hunter found a whale fossil in a limestone rock at Jan Juc Beach,
Australia. Researchers named it Janjucetus hunderi in his honor. In
2006 researchers said it was an ancestor of modern baleen whales.
The fossil suggests a creature that grew to a little more than 11
feet with teeth about an inch-and-a-half long.
(www.livescience.com/animalworld/060830_whale_fossil.html)
25Mil BC In 2007 Scientists reported that a fossil
from this time, found in Queensland, Australia, in the 1990s, has
revealed that a predecessor of the hopping kangaroo once galloped on
all fours, had dog-like fangs and possibly climbed trees.
(AP, 12/6/07)
25Mil BC The lineage of tail-bearing monkeys split
about this time from a line that went on to develop toward apes and
humans.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)

24Mil BC A period of violent earthquakes shook the
region that later became China’s Yunnan province and created the
Ailao Shan range of Southwest China.
(SFC, 5/19/06, p.B7)

24Mil BC - 5Mil BC Miocene epoch, during this
period an array of early ape species spread throughout the old
world. Sometime during the last half of the epoch the ancestral line
of pongid (ape) and hominid (man and his ancestors) split.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.563)
24Mil BC - 5Mil BC The cliffs at Plum Point,
Maryland contain Miocene sediments and fossils. Here Toger Sasson
found the five inch tooth of the giant Miocene shark Carcharadon
megalodon. It was flawless and preserved in microscopic detail.
(SFME, 5/7/95, p.14)

23Mil BC A large group of primitive apes appeared
in East Africa sometime before this and expanded into many genera
and species.
(USAT, 8/27/99, p.4A)
23Mil BC A volcano erupted that later became known
as the Pinnacles of central California. It was on the San Andres
fault line and half stayed in southern California as the other half
migrated north.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.T4)
23Mil BC In China the Red and Yangzi rivers
separated about this time. The Yangzi made a u-turn from flowing
south and began flowing north-east. In 2013 sediment analysis
confirmed this change.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.58)

22Mil BC The evolution of grasses in the Miocene
allowed for the evolution of horses on hard, dry plains.
(NH, 6/96, p.24)
21Mil BC The impact of the modern San Andreas
Fault, as distinguished from possible precursors, probably did not
reach Middle California until about 21 million years ago.
(GH-ADH, p.34)
21Mil BC A fossil of a creature called
Morotopithecus bishopi, a tree-dwelling, ape-like creature that
lived in what is now Uganda, was found in the 1960s and indicated
that its transverse process had moved backward, behind the opening
for the spinal cord. In 2007 Dr. Aaron Filler authored "The Upright
Ape: a new origin of the Species," in which he argued that this
common ancestor, and ancestors going back many millions of years
before, walked upright. Homo sapiens, the human species, continued
upright, while apes evolved back toward all fours.
(AP, 7/16/07)
21Mil BC A star in the Pinwheel Galaxy, a neighbor
of the Milky Way, exploded into a supernova. First seen on Aug 24,
2011, it was identified as a type 1a supernova and named SN2011FE.
(SFC, 9/5/11, p.A7)

20.6Mil BC A common ancestor to man and the apes,
Morotopithecus bishopi, lived about this time. Its remains were
unearthed in Uganda and indicate an animal about 4 feet tall, and
weighing 90-110 pounds. It’s suspected to have been a cautious
climber and mostly fruit-eater.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.A5)

20Mil BC The gorilla lineage evolved from a common
ancestor of orangutans about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
20Mil BC Ugandapithecus Major, a remote cousin of
modern great apes, roamed Uganda about this time. The fossilized
skull of a male Ugandapithecus Major was discovered in 2011.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
20Mil BC Late Paleozoic rocks are widely exposed
in the Santa Lucia Range, but occur only as small patches in the
Gabilan and Santa Cruz ranges. They are not native to this area and
moved into Middle California only about 20 million years ago.
(GH-ADH, p.23)
20Mil BC The desert tortoise has been an occupant
of the Mohave desert since at least this time.
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.26)
20Mil BC Researchers agree that by this time
cetaceans looked quite similar to those in the oceans today.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.18)
c20Mil BC Hot water escaping from magma laid down
rivulets of metal in the Cerro Rico Mountain of Bolivia.
(NH, 11/96, p.38)
c20Mil BC Dominican amber was formed about this
time. It came from an extinct species of the legume tree, genus
Hymenaea, on the island of Hispaniola. A similar deposit occurs in
southern Mexico and these amber types contain a greater variety of
life than does Baltic amber.
(PacDis, Winter/’97, p.11)
20 Mil BC Grenada was formed as an underwater
volcano.
(SSFC, 12/11/05, p.F4)

20Mil BC - 15Mil BC In Antarctica a geologic basin
formed during a tectonic upheaval that later led to the formation of
the sub-glacial Lake Vostok.
(SFC, 8/2/04, p.A6)

20Mil B C - 10Mil BC A team of Australian
paleontologists in 2006 said they had found the fossilized remains
of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck
of doom" that lived during this period in Queensland state.
(AP, 7/12/06)

18Mil BC In 2004 Scientists searching for fossils
high in the Chilean Andes mountains unearthed the remains of a
tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed about this time.
Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, was a primitive relative of
a line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the massive,
impregnable Gyptodon, which died out only about 8,000 BC.
(AP, 12/12/07)

17Mil BC The centerpiece of Dr. Golenberg's
research is DNA from a 17 million year old magnolia leaf.
(WSUAN, Fall/95, p.5)

16Mil BC Orangutans estimated divergence from
hominids.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 585)
16Mil BC The Indian Ocean was in a state of
upheaval driven by volcanic activity. Two coelacanth species may
have diverged about this time, one near the region of the Comoro
Islands and the other off the Indonesian coast of Sulawesi.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A2)

15.5Mil BC Southeastern Washington and Oregon were
covered by huge lava flows estimated at some 40,000 cubic miles.
Some beds were over a mile thick. The weight led to a sag in the
earth and the ancient Lake Vantage formed.
(ST, 7/29/04, NWW p.18)(SSFC, 9/12/04, p.D9)

15Mil BC In 2005 the fragmentary remains of a
3-toed horse from this time were reported from the central valley of
California. Merychippus californicus stood 3 ½ feet at the shoulder.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.B1)
15Mil BC Lake Vostok became sealed from the
surface of Antarctica about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.87)
15Mil BC The fossil of a large bird from this time
was found in Patagonia, Argentina, in 2004. The skull of the
10-foot-tall, flightless predator measured 28 inches and was
identified in 2006 as an offshoot of the phorusrhacids (terror
birds).
(SFC, 10/26/06, p.A8)
15Mil BC In Australia sheep-sized relatives of
modern-day wombats lived treetops about this time. The wombat-like
marsupial was later named Nimbadon lavarackorum. The world's largest
tree-climbing marsupial were among fossils found at the Riversleigh
World Heritage Site in Queensland state. The Nimbadon fossil
material was found in 2010.
(SFC, 7/17/10, p.A2)(AFP, 5/3/12)
15Mil BC In Germany in 1725 the first fossil
salamander was found. It was at first identified as human but later
correctly identified as the extinct cryptobranchid named Andrias
scheuchzeri and dated to 15 million years of age.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.36)
15Mil BC The Baha Peninsula began separating from
the Mexican mainland.
(SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T8)
15Mil BC An ape genus called Equatorius was
thought in 1999 to be among the first primates to leave the treetops
and live on the ground. Some scientists placed Equatorius into the
Kenyapithecus genus.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A7)

14Mil BC In 1990 paleontologists found bones from
a 35-foot whale in an quarry in eastern Virginia. It took several
years to prepare and identify them as a new species. It was named
Eobalaenoptera harrisoni, after Carter Harrison, a Virginia Museum
of Natural History volunteer.
(AP, 6/14/04)

14Mil BC - 10Mil BC Ape species moved from Africa
into Europe and Asia. They initially thrived but later became
extinct.
(SFC, 8/27/99, p.A7)

13Mil BC In 2004 Spanish anthropologists announced
the discovery of fossils from this time of a new ape species they
named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus. Bones suggested an adult male of
75 pounds adapted for tree climbing while upright and knuckle
walking on the ground. The ape also had a modern ape-like thorax.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)

12Mil BC Volcanic activity results in the
formation of the tuff of Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas, and proposed site for the long term storage of radio-active
waste.
(Smith., 5/95, p.41-44)
12Mil BC Gorilla and chimpanzees split from a
common ancestor about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
12Mil BC A raptorial sperm whale living about this
time grew up to 60 feet with some teeth 14 inches long. Fossils were
discovered in a Peruvian desert and in 2010 scientists named it
Leviathan melvillei.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A3)
12Mil BC Studies in 2011 of tiny pollen fossils
buried deep beneath the seafloor suggested that the last remnant of
vegetation in Antarctica vanished about this time.
(http://tinyurl.com/3lqsfzz)

12Mil BC - 10Mil BC Current scenarios have humans
and orangutans split from other apes about this time.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)

~11Mil BC - 10Mil BC Orangutans split from the
line of great apes.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A4)

10Mil BC In 2007 Ethiopian fossil hunter found
molars of a large ape that bespoke gorilla origins from about this
time. They named the large ape Chororapithecus abyssinicus.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)
10Mil BC Ankarapithecus meteai, a
60-pound-fruit-eating ape, roamed the woodlands of central Turkey
about 30 miles north of Ankara. A face and mandible were discovered
in 1995. The ape was said to exist long before the evolutionary
split that separated humans from chimps.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)
10Mil BC Oceanic spreading began a process of
mountain building in southern California, including formation of the
San Andreas Fault, migration of the Baja California peninsula away
from the mainland of Mexico, the loss of summer rainfall and the
diversification of species.
(Fremontia, 4/2009, p.20)
10Mil BC In the Mohave National Preserve volcanic
formations of this age formed caves of congealed lava over 25,600
acres.
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.A17)
10Mil BC The Great Rift Valley lakes of Africa
originated about this time.
(NH, 7/98, p.68)
10Mil BC In 2009 researchers in Peru said an
unusually intact fossilized skull of a pelagornithid, a giant,
bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago, had been
found in the in the Pisco Formation, a coastal rock bed south of the
capital, Lima, known for yielding fossils of whales, dolphins,
turtles and other marine life dating as far back as 14 million
years.
(AP, 2/28/09)
10Mil BC The Ankarapithecus skull, dating to about
this time, was found in the Turkish desert in 1996. The remains show
many similarities to Sivapithecus from South Asia, and have
sometimes been included in that genus.
(http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/apes/ankarapithecus/ankarapithecus_overview.html)

10-5 Million The Galapagos islands emerged as
volcanoes from the ocean. They are at the junction of two
continental plates, over a stationary "hot spot" in the earth’s
core.
(SFC, 12/4/94, p. T-5)

9.8Mil BC In 2007 Researchers in Kenya unveiled a
10-million-year-old jaw bone they believe belonged to a new species
of great ape that could be the last common ancestor of gorillas,
chimpanzees and humans. A Kenyan and Japanese team found the
fragment, dating back to between 9.8 and 9.88 million years, in 2005
along with 11 teeth. The fossils were unearthed in volcanic mud flow
deposits in the northern Nakali region of Kenya.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)

9Mil BC The predaceous hedgehog Deinogalerix lived
in the Mediterranean Islands and grew to a large size.
(NH, 7/98, p.56)
9Mil BC The first creatures in the human lineage
lived about this time.
(SFC, 8/23/07, p.A16)

8Mil BC In 2007 Hungarian scientists discovered a
group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from this time.
The trees dated to the late Miocene geological period at a time when
the Carpathian basin, present day Hungary, was a freshwater lake
surrounded by swamps.
(Reuters, 7/31/07)
8 Million Antelopes split off from the sheep and
goat lineages about this time, when the Tibetan plateau had almost
reached its present height.
(NH, 5/96, p.52)
c8 Million BP Phoberomis pattersoni, a giant
rodent related to later guinea pigs, wallowed in the coastal marshes
of northwestern Venezuela.
(SFC, 9/19/03, p.A2)

8-7 Million The area where Los Angeles is in 1997
was at least a half-mile under water at this time.
(SFC, 2/12/97, p.A1)

7.6Mil BC In July, 2002, scientists led by Michael
Brunet reported a hominid species, dating to about this time, found
in the Djurab desert, Sahel region of northern Chad. They named the
group Sahelanthropus tchadensis (with the nickname Toumai, "hope of
life" in the Goran language). Other scientists later denied it was a
human ancestor. DNA analysis in 2006 suggested that Toumai, with its
human and chimp features, preceded the human-chimp split. The
analysis also suggested that human lineage stemmed from a
human-chimp hybrid.
(SFC, 7/11/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/11/02, p.B1)(SFC,
10/10/02, p.A2)(SFC, 5/18/06, p.A3)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.D5)

7.5-3.5 Mil A biogenic bloom is believed to be
part of this period, early Pliocene, when the Earth's high-latitude
regions were much warmer than they are today. Biogenic blooms are
also suggested for the Indian Ocean, the Pacific coasts of North and
South America, and in the equatorial Pacific.
(LSA, Fall 1995, p.35)

6Mil BC In 2000 French researchers found bones in
the Rift Valley of Central Kenya that they called their Millennial
Ancestor and believed to be a direct precursor of humans. Dr. Martin
Pickford and co-discoverers named the fossil Orrorin tugenensis
(orrorin means original man in the Tugen language). The bones were
found in the Lukeino Formation of the Tugen Hills.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 4/8/01, p.A12)(AM,
7/01, p.25)(AM, 5/01, p.58)
6Mil BC The Mediterranean Sea at this time was
completely dried up. In 2010 fossils were found in rocks of the
Mediterranean seabed dating to this time.
(SFC, 4/28/10, p.A6)

6Mil BC - 5Mil BC Terminal Miocene Event.
According to C.K. Brain, a profound cooling caused a rapid buildup
of ice in Antarctica. Sea levels dropped 50-60 meters and rainfall
in many places was strongly affected.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p. 582)
6Mil BC - 5Mil BC Humans split from chimpanzees
and bonobos about this time.
(SFC, 7/25/96. p.A3)(NH, 11/96, p.12)
6Mil BC - 5Mil BC The carving of the Grand Canyon
dramatically accelerated during this period. By modern times it
stretched 277-miles, 18 miles at its widest point, with depths up to
6,000 feet. In 2008 evidence suggested that the canyon could be 17
million years old.
(SFC, 3/7/08, p.A6)

6Mil BC By Pliocene time, the continents had
assumed their present outlines but a new phenomenon began to affect
the earth. The climate grew colder.
(DD-EVTT, p.285)

5.8Mil BC - 5.2Mil BC In 2001 Yohannes
Haile-Selassie and Giday WoldeGabriel reported possible human
fossils from this period found at Asa Koma (Red Hill), Ethiopia.
They were tentatively named as a subspecies of Ardipithecus ramidus
kadabba. Kadabba means progenitor in the Afar language. In 2004
Ardipithecus kadabba was named a new species base on teeth
fragments.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A4)(AM, 9/01, p.16)(SFC,
2/05/04, p.A2)

5.5Mil BC The main Hawaiian Islands began to form
as the Pacific tectonic plate moved over a “hotspot" in the Earth’s
mantle. The 5 largest islands formed in order: Kauai, Oahu, Molokai,
Maui and the Big Island. Molokai and Maui were originally joined.
(NH, 10/1/04, p.33)

5Mil BC Molecular biologists in the 20th century
reckoned that hominids became distinct from apes about this time.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.80)
5Mil BC Lake Ohrid was created about this time.
The 18-mile-long mountain lake bordered Albania and Macedonia.
(SSFC, 8/31/14, p.L3)

5Mil BC - 3.5Mil BC The Westerlund 1 cluster of
superstars in the Milky Way, was formed during this period. The
system, located 16,000 light years away in the constellation of Ara,
the Altar, was discovered by a Swedish astronomer in 1961. It
contained a magnetar, a neutron star with a mighty magnetic field.
(AFP, 8/18/10)(Econ, 9/18/10, p.99)

5Mil BC - 1.8Mil BC The Pliocene Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
Road cuts between Tomales and Dillon Beach:
sandstone. Road cuts in upper Claremont Canyon: sandstone, shale,
conglomerate. Bald Peak and Grizzly Peak: basalt. Little Grizzly
Peak: rhyolite breccia. Road cuts between Rodeo and Oleum: tuff.
Coast south of Half Moon Bay: black shale.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
Geological evidence show temperatures were much
warmer at mid-latitude and sub-polar regions during the early
Pliocene than they are today.
(LSA, Fall 1995, p.35)
The sandy peninsula of Lake Wales Ridge of
Florida evolved in isolation from the rest of the world when the
rest of Florida was covered by ocean during the Pliocene.
(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.6)

4.5Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

4.4Mil BC A partial skeleton in some 125 pieces
was found by a group led by Tim White, Gen Suwa and Berhane Asfaw in
the Middle Awash at Aramis, Ethiopia, in late 1994. They named it
Ardipithecus ramidus, which put it in a new genus and means ground
ape root. A new argon-argon dating technique was used. In 2009
scientists reported that the hominid Ardipithecus ramidus, dubbed
"Ardi," represents the earliest skeleton of a human ancestor. The
110-pound, 4-foot female roamed forests a million years before the
famous Lucy. In 2010 other specialists challenged White’s analysis.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)(SFC, 9/1/97, p.A2)(SFC,
4/23/99, p.A21)(AM, 7/01, p.25)(AP, 10/2/09)(SFC, 5/28/10, p.A4)

4.38Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

4.25Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

4.2Mil BC - 3.9 Mil BC Meave Leakey and Alan
Walker found a previously unknown species named Australopithecus
anamensis, near Kenya's East Lake Turkana, in the form of jaw bones,
teeth, arm and leg fragments. The leg bones suggested that it was
clearly an ape-like but two-legged creature, making it the oldest
proven bipedal prehuman. It was thought by the Chinese to have
descended from an ancestor named Lufengpithecus.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)(WSJ, 6/16/98, p.A8)

4.1Mil BC - 3Mil BC Fossils of Australopithecus
anamensis and A. afarensis, later found in Ethiopia, showed that
structures in the wrist bones had once supported knuckle walking.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A4)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A2)

4.05Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

4Mil BC Human tool use goes back about this far.
(NH, 8/96, p.29)
4Mil BC Tiny foot bones and a tiny pelvis indicate
that humans walked upright by this time.
(NH, 6/97, p.16)
4Mil BC In 2007 Italian researchers found the
skeleton of a 33-foot prehistoric whale about 100 yards below ground
in the Tuscan countryside. The skeleton dated to 4 million years
ago, to the Pliocene epoch.
(AP, 4/3/07)
4Mil BC In 2008 Paleontologists reported the skull
of a giant rodent of this time found in a broken boulder on Kiyu
Beach on the coast of Uruguay's River Plate region. It was estimated
to have weighed an average of 1,008 kilos (1.008 tons, 2,217 pounds)
and was dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi, in honor of Alvaro Mones, a
Uruguayan paleontologist who specialized in South American rodents.
(AP, 1/16/08)

4Mil BC - 3Mil BC Mammoth first appeared in
Africa. They have 58 chromosomes and are believed to be cousins of
elephants, who have 56.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A17)
4Mil BC - 3Mil BC Mount Whitney, Ca., and sister
peaks in the Sierra Nevada were formed during this period as a chunk
of Earth’s crust broke loose sinking into the mantle generating
upward forces.
(SFC, 7/30/04, p.A4)

4Mil BC - 2Mil BC A crocodile that grew to over 27
feet lived in Kenya during this period. Fossilized remains were
reported in 2012.
(SFC, 5/9/12, p.A2)

3.92Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

3.8Mil BC - 4Mil BC In 2005 hominid bones
indicting bipedalism were discovered at a new site called Mille, in
the northeastern Afar region of Ethiopia. They were estimated to be
3.8-4 million years old.
(AP, 3/6/05)

3.70Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

3.6Mil BC - 3.2Mil BC. A primate skeleton,
australopithecine, from the Sterkfontein cave near Johannesburg,
South Africa, was estimated at this age. Pieces of the almost
complete skeleton began emerging in 1994 and a skull was reported in
1998.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A10)
3.6Mil BC - 3Mil BC A composite skull of adult
male, Australopithecus afarensis, was found in 1975 by M. Bush at
Hadar, Ethiopia. In 1978-1979 Mary Leakey’s team excavated a 75-foot
long trail of 47 footprints, found at Laetoli, Tanzania, most likely
made by Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.568)(Hem., Dec. '95,
p.24)(PacDisc, Spring ‘96, p.2)

3.58Mil BC In 2010 fossil hunters reported the
discovery in Ethiopia’s Afar Desert of bones from a male specimen of
Australopithecus afarensis dating to this time. The 40% skeleton was
estimated to have stood about 5-5½ feet tall.
(SFC, 6/24/10, p.A4)

3.5Mil BC Little Foot, the first set of bones
complete enough to reconstruct the foot of an early bipedal, or
two-legged human ancestors. Four foot bones were found in 1980 and
re-analyzed in 1995 by Ronald J. Clarke and Philip Tobias of the
Univ. of Witwatersrand. It suggests that the transition to
human-type locomotion did not happen in one step, but in a series of
changes.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)
3.5Mil BC It was reported in 2001 that a new
flat-faced hominid skull found by Justus Erus of the Leakey group
near Kenya’s Lake Turkana dated to about this time. Maeve Leakey
named it Kenyanthropus platyops, "the flat-faced man of Kenya."
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A2)(AM, 7/01, p.24)
3.5Mil BC A brief period of global warming took
place about this time warming the Bering Strait and allowing
hundreds of species of marine life to migrate from the Pacific
through the ice-free Arctic to colonize the Atlantic.
(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A6)

3.5Mil BC - 3Mil BC A French team of
paleontologists led by Michel Brunet on 1/23/95 discovered a lower
jaw with 7 teeth and a separate canine of a hominid from this time
period. The discovery was made in a dried lake bed of central Chad
and named Australopithecus bahrelghazalia after the Arab name of a
nearby river.
(SFC, 5/23/96, p.A14)

3.4Mil BC In California volcanic ash from about
this time covered coastal redwood forests. In 1871 petrified redwood
trees, dating to this time, were discovered in Calistoga, Ca.
(KCSM TV, Calif. Gold, 10/10/11)
3.4Mil BC The fossil of a pre-human footprint
dating to this time was later found in Ethiopia and attributed by
scientists in 2012 to a hominin line that never adapted to
terrestrial mobility upright.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A5)

3.32Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

3.3Mil BC A mile-wide asteroid hit the coast of
what became Argentina. It may have abruptly cooled the climate and
caused the deaths of 36 species of huge animals, that included giant
armadillos and sloths.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D11)
3.3Mil BC In northeastern Ethiopia scientists in
2000 found a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old
Australopithecus afarensis female dating to about this time. This is
the same ape-man species as represented by "Lucy," found in 1974.
(AP, 9/20/06)

3.2Mil BC Donald C. Johanson found Lucy's 3.2
million-year-old bones in Ethiopia in 1974. Dr. Johanson and an
international team at Hadar, Ethiopia, discovered a female skeleton
in 3 million year old strata and named it Lucy. Subsequent finds
there and at Laetoli, Tanzania, led to the naming of a new species:
Australopithecus afarensis.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 564)(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4-5)

3.06Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

3Mil BC The 2 American continents were joined by
the rising of a land bridge in Central America. Giant South American
sloths began migrating north and gomphotheres, elephants with great
tusks built like shovels, migrated south. This era is covered in the
1997 book: "The Monkey’s Bridge: Mysteries of Evolution in Central
America" by David Rains Wallace. This forced warm water north and
cooling currents led to snow and glaciers and an Ice Age.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.7)(SFEC, 9/19/99, Z1 p.3)
3Mil BC The Petrified Forest, 6 miles west of
downtown Calistoga dates to this time. A volcanic eruption felled
redwood trees that turned to stone.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.T1)
3Mil BC A nearly complete male A. afarensis was
found at Hadar, Ethiopia.
(AM, 7/01, p.24)
3Mil BC Volcanic rock was carved by nature into
fairy chimneys around Cappadocia in present day Turkey.
(Smith., 5/95, p.10)

3Mil BC - 2.5Mil BC Australopithecus africanus was
the name given to the skull of an adult male found by R. Broom and
T.J. Robinson in 1947 at Sterkfontein, South Africa. It was named by
Prof. Raymond Dart in 1924 after his analysis of the Taung child
skull from a cave South Africa. Average age of sample teeth is 22
years at death, as analyzed by Alan Mann. In 2006 new analysis of
the Taung skull suggested that the child was killed by a predatory
bird.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.568, 578, 596)(AP, 1/12/06)
3Mil BC - 2.5Mil BC Teeth of Australopithecus
africanus analyzed from this period indicate consumption of large
quantities of carbon 13 from either grasses and sedges of animals
that ate such plants or both. This was a transition period of
movement from trees and forests to more open land.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A11)

3Mil BC - 2Mil BC Research in 2007 on fossil teeth
from this period suggested that Australopithecus africanus and
Paranthropus robustus used plant roots extensively in their
diet.
(SFC, 5/10/07, p.A17)

3Mil BC - 1Mil BC So far there seems to have been
four genera in the human family tree: Ardipithecus near the root;
several species of Australopithecus that lived between 1 million and
3 million years ago; an offshoot of vegetarian hominid species in
the genus Paranthropus that co-existed for a while with
Australopithecus; and the Homo line that emerged about 2 million
years ago. Paranthropus was characterized by brains not much bigger
than modern chimpanzees, but huge jaws and teeth, that implied a
diet of tough roots and nuts.
(SFC, 10/22/95, p.4)(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)
3Mil BC - 1Mil BC The Pistol Star, located between
the Earth and center of the Milky Way, was first seen with infrared
equipment in the early 1990s. It was measured to be 25,000
light-years away with a radius of 93-140 million miles. It was
estimated to have formed 1-3 million years ago and shed much of its
mass in violent eruptions estimated to have occurred about 6,000
years ago.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.3A)

3Mil BC A fossil of a seabird, one of the
Pelagornithids, from about this time was discovered in 2010 in Half
Moon Bay, Ca. The gigantic, bony-toothed bird had an 18-foot
wingspan.
(SFC, 5/12/11, p.A1)
3Mil BC A nearly complete male skull of A.
afarensis was found in 1991 at Hadar, Ethiopia.
(www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/specimen.html#afarensis)

2.94Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

2.90Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

2.80Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)
2.8Mil BC A. afarensis seems to disappear
from the fossil record.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.595)
2.8Mil BC Scientists in 2015 reported that a
jawbone found in northeast Ethiopia dated to about this time making
it the oldest to date for the Homo branch of humans.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A2)
2.8Mil BC Volcanic eruptions in the area of
Flagstaff, Arizona, began building a 16,000-foot volcano. It later
became known as the San Francisco Mountain and in 2006 stood at
12,643-feet.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.G4)

2.7Mil BC A major change in global climate
occurred about this time that may have forced the hominid line to
develop rapidly.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)

2.6Mil BC - 2.52Mil BC Stone flakes, flake
fragments and cores of the Oldowan type from the Afar region of
Ethiopia have been dated to this time. They were excavated between
1992-1994 along the Gona River.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.13)

2.5Mil BC The Paleolithic began with the first
stone tools made by Homo habilis.
(WH, 1994, p.19)
2.5Mil BC Stone tools, choppers and flaked cores,
were made near the Gona River in central Ethiopia. Research on the
tools was published in 1997 by Sileshi Semaw and Jack Harris.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)
2.5Mil BC In 1999 scientists published the
discovery of hominid fossil bones from the Awash River in Ethiopia.
A team led by Berhani Asfaw and Tim D. White of UC Berkeley named
the find Australopithecus garhi (southern ape-man surprise).
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.A21)
2.5Mil BC Climactic change causing a re-expansion
of the Antarctic ice sheets. Africa experiences a drying up, a
reduction of wooded areas and a return of widespread open
grasslands. Elisabeth Vrba’s studies of the fossil record in South
Africa show a peak in extinctions and new species. At this time the
hominid lineage split, one branch leading to the robusts and the
other to modern humans.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.600)

2.43Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

c2.4Mil BC The mutated myosin gene (MYH16),
discovered in 2004, emerged about this time and launched a lineage
of prehumans with smaller jaws and larger skulls.
(SFC, 3/25/04, p.A2)

2.4Mil BC Fossils suggest that the first members
of the true human genus, species known as Homo rudolfensis and Homo
habilis, emerged in East Africa about this time.
(SFC, 1/23/97, p.A5)(AM, 7/01, p.24)

2.33Mil BC Scientists identified a fossil jawbone
as an early member of the genus Homo dated to this time along with
some stone tools. The fossils were found at the Hadar site in
northern Ethiopia’s Afar badlands in 1994 by local team members Ali
Yesuf and Maumun Alahandu but only dated in 1996. Scientists say
that there were 2-3 different species of Homo living at this time.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A1,17)

2.13Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

2.11Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

2Mil BC About this time California’s King’s Canyon
was carved out by a slab of ice 2,000 feet thick.
(SSFC, 7/24/05, p.F7)
2Mil BC Homo habilis. Skull of adult male found by
B. Ngeneo in 1972 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. His span overlaps with A.
boisei and corresponds with the appearance of simple stone tools.
Habilis gave rise to the larger brained Homo erectus.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 571, 576)
2Mil BC In 2007 researchers reported that the
first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda has
been discovered in China and estimated to be at least 2 million
years old. The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or
"pygmy giant panda," would have been about 3 feet long, compared to
the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of five feet.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2Mil BC Mount Kenya, a volcano, was born.
(NH, 6/96, p.26)

2Mil BC - 1.5Mil BC Australopithecus robustus. Skull of adult female
found by Quarryman Fourie in 1950 at Swartkrans, South Africa. A
survey of Robustus teeth by Alan Mann shows an average age at death
of 17 years. A female Paranthropus robustus was found in 1994
Drimolen, South Africa.
(NG, Nov. 1985, K.F. Weaver, p.570)(SFC, 4/27/00,
p.A4)

2Mil BC - 50,000BC In Australia a herbivorous
diprotodon, the largest marsupial to ever roam the earth, lived
about this time. A fossil of the car sized mega-wombat was unearthed
in northern Australia in 2011.
(AFP, 7/6/11)

1.98Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.977Mil BC In 2008 scientists in South Africa
found 2 skeletons of a new hominid species dating back to about this
time. In 2010 studies were published indicating that the adult
female and juvenile male fossils, dubbed Australopithecus sediba,
have shed light on a previously unknown stage in human evolution. In
2011 Lee Berger of the Univ. of Witwatersrand. Berger said the find
represented the most plausible known ancestor of archaic and modern
humans.
(AFP, 4/8/10)(SFC, 4/9/10, p.A16)(SFC, 9/9/11,
p.A21)

1.95Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.95Mil BC-1.78Mil BC Fossils of a partial skull
and two jawbones found in South Africa’s Turkana Basin in 2007 dated
to this period and indicated that at least 3 species of early humans
co-existed.
(SFC, 8/9/12, p.A3)

1.83Mil BC In 2009 Malaysian archeologists
reported that prehistoric stone axes found in Perak state in 2008
were the world's oldest dating to about this time. The result had a
margin of error of 610,000 years.
(AP, 1/30/09)

1.8Mil BC - 10,000BC The
Pleistocene (most-recent) Epoch.
(ADH, GHMC,1979, p.24)
The epoch is divided into Early (to 700,000),
Middle (to 120,000) and Late geologic periods. The Lower Paleolithic
extends (c250,000-100,000) through the early and middle Pleistocene.
The Middle Paleolithic extends from ~100-35,000 yrs in the late
Pleistocene. The Upper Paleolithic extends from ~35-10,000.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)
Terraces near Millerton: sand and gravel. Road
cuts at Colma: old beach and sand dunes. Quarries at Irvington: sand
and gravel. Volcanic rocks of Mt. Konocti at Clear Lake.
(GH-ADH, p.24)
The great coastal mountain
ranges and the eastern California mountains were pushed up. The
climax of the movements seem to have been reached in Pleistocene
times and uplift is still going on.
(DD-EVTT, p.291)
1.8Mil BC - 10,000BC In the Philippines the
Cagayan Valley archaeological site has revealed stone tools from the
Pleistocene.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)

1.8Mil BC - 700,000BC The Early Pleistocene.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)

1.8Mil BC The Olduvai subchron occurred and serves
as a paleomagnetic marker.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.47)
1.8Mil BC Scientists dated early human remains in
Java to this time. Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo were joined to
each other and the Asian land mass during glacial periods of low sea
level.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.A4)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.20)
1.8Mil BC In 1936 scientists discovered the skull
of a Homo erectus infant, the “Mojokerto child," on Java that dated
to about this time. CT scans later revealed that the 12-month old
infant’s brain was 72-84% the size of an adult Homo erectus
(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.B7)
1.8Mil BC Hominid fossils and crude stone tools of
this time were found in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in
1991 beneath the ruins of a medieval castle at Dmanisi. The tools
were similar to ones in China dating at 1.66 million. A 3rd smaller
skull was found in 2002. All 3 were tentatively classified as Homo
erectus. One skull of a man indicated that he had been almost
toothless for at least 2 years before death. In 2013 a study of the
findings was published in Science.
(Arch, 9/02, p.10)(SFC, 5/12/00, p.A5)(SFC,
7/5/02, p.A5)(SFC, 4/7/05, p.A3)(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A4)

1.8Mil BC - 1.75Mil BC Australopithecus boisei
(first called Zinjanthropus boisei), robust form from East Africa.
Skull of adult male found by M.D. Leakey in 1959 at Olduvai Gorge in
Tanzania. He had a brain of 530 mm, the same as robustus, but so
massive were his face and cheek teeth that he became know as
Nutcracker man.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 570, 575,599)

1.8Mil BC - 1.6Mil BC New and more precise
radio-potassium dates on the Indonesian sites gave dates earlier
than 1.25 million [for Homo erectus]. [see 53,000-27,000]
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.46)
1.8Mil BC - 1.2Mil BC The Ross Sea off Antarctica
was 6-7 degrees warmer. This was determined from shellfish fossils
and 15 previously unknown species of algae found under the seabed
off Cape Roberts.
(SFC, 1/31/98, p.A10)

1.8Mil BC Fossils of the bipedal Paranthropus
robustus from the Swartkrans cave of South Africa dated to about
this time. The species went extinct about 1Mil BC. In 2006 new
evidence suggested the species had a broader diet than was believed
earlier.
(SFC, 11/10/06, p.A4)
1.8Mil BC In 2006 a Petroleos de Venezuela team
looking for oil in Monagas state, found fossils of six scimitar
cats, or Homotherium, along with those of panthers, wolves, camels,
condors, ducks and horses, that dated to about this time.
(AP, 8/12/08)

1.8Mil BC - 300k BC The Irvingtonian period: In
2009 Southern California Edison, a utility company preparing to
build a new substation in an arid canyon southeast of Los Angeles,
stumbled on a trove of animal fossils dating back 1.4 million years.
All the bones were dated to the Irvingtonian period, which spanned
1.8 million to 300,000 years ago. The bones found in Riverside
County were dated by observing the layers of sediment they were
found in and fall at about 1.4 million years ago.
(AP, 9/21/10)
1.8Mil BC - 400k BC A mammoth found in 2005 in
Moorpark, southern California, dated to this period.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.A17)

1.79Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.76Mil BC US and French researchers in 2011
identified Acheulian stone tools dating to about this time near the
shoreline of Kenya’s Lake Turkana.
(SFC, 9/1/11, p.A6)

1.75Mil BC Mary Leakey found a hominid fossil
skull of about 1,750,00 years old at Koobi Fora, Kenya, in 1970. It
was named Australopithecus boisei. [see 1.8 mil]
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.164)(NH, 4/97, p.21)

1.7Mil BC - 100k BC This is the approximate
cultural period named Acheulean. Cultural period names are derived
from sites in western Europe where Paleolithic remains: such as
bones, tools, weapons, ornaments or cave art, were first identified.
The Acheulean refers to the Lower Paleolithic Age lasting from the
2nd to the 3rd interglacial epoch and marked by the use of finely
made bifacial tools with multiple cutting edges.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 447)(WUD, 1994, p.11)

1.7Mil BC - 1.6Mil BC Time of the "Oldowan Core,"
a chunk of quartzite which appears to owe its status as a hominid
tool wholly to paleontologist Richard Leakey.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.B3)

1.66Mil BC Stone tools of this age were later
found in northern China in the Nihewan Basin west of Beijing.
(Arch, 1/05, p.12)

1.64Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.63Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.61Mil BC An alteration in the Earth's magnetic
field occurred.
(E&IH, 1973, p.94)

1.6Mil BC Homo erectus found at Kenya’s Lake
Turkana (Koobi Fora) was dated to this time by Dr. Francis Brown of
the Univ. of Utah using chemical analysis of volcanic ash. Homo
ergaster, the "Turkana boy" skull from Nariokotome, Kenya, was
discovered in 1984. A team led by Richard Leakey unearthed hominid
bones date to this time at Nariokotome in West Turkana, in northern
Kenya. The skeleton of the 5-foot-3 Turkana Boy, who died at age 12,
was preserved in marshland before its discovery.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p.588)(NH, 4/97, p.71)(AP,
2/6/07)
1.6Mil BC Homo erectus dates from at least this
far back and had a brain capacity of some 1,000 ml, compared with
our own 1,400. He was the first to control fire and to move out of
Africa into Europe and Asia. A Palaeolithic technology called
Acheulian was invented in Africa by Homo erectus about this time.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 452)(Econ, 3/26/11, p.93)
1.6Mil BC Josep Gibert, a Spanish fossil hunter,
found a human skull fragment in southern Spain near Orce. It was
dated by reference to paleomagnetic markers and confirming faunal
evidence. The skull came from a site called Venta Micena and had
associated stone tools of Oldowan type. Of the 15,000 bones found
here, one of the most abundant is from Pachycrocuta brevirostris, an
extinct giant hyena.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.47)

1.6Mil BC - 1Mil BC Stone age Acheulian tools dating to this period
were found in southern India at the Attirampakkam site in Tamil Nadu
state during excavations from 1999-2002. The site was discovered by
British geologist Robert Bruce Foote in 1863 and was sporadically
investigated for over a century.
(Econ, 3/26/11,
p.93)(www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/pappu297/)

>1.5Mil BC A hand ax from Olduvai is part of an
art exhibit: Africa: The Art of a Continent, that is in London and
will travel to the Guggenheim. The catalog describes it as "a first
thing made by man."
(WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)

1.5Mil BC Homo erectus. Skull of undetermined sex
found by B. Ngeneo in 1975 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. First identified as
Java man in 1893 and later as Peking man in the
1920s. Erectus fashioned more advanced tools and controlled fire.
(NG, Nov. 1985, p. 571,576)
1.5Mil BC The human brain began to expand as the
skull gained a forehead and then ballooned out like a melon.
(NH, 6/97, p.16)

1.44Mil BC In 2007 Meave Leakey reported that a
Homo habilis jaw from Kenya, found in 2000, dated to this time. It
was the youngest ever found from a species that scientists
originally figured died off somewhere between 1.7 and 2 million
years ago. It enabled scientists to say that Homo erectus and Homo
habilis lived at the same time.
(AP, 8/8/07)

1.4Mil BC Stone tools indicative of human activity
have been found at Ubedeiya in Israel.
(PacDis., Spg. 96, p.46)

1.4Mil BC - 600k BC A human skull from this period
found in Eritrea was the only one of this period from Africa and
combined features of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. Like sapiens the
skull is widest at a higher point than the skulls of erectus.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A2)

1.25Mil BC - 250k BC Over this period there were 13 major periods of
eruption by volcanoes in the Grand Canyon with more than 150 lava
flows into the canyon. These are described in the 1997 book "Late
Cenozoic Lava Dams in the Western Grand Canyon," by W.K. Hamblin.
(NH, 9/97, p.37,39)

1.2Mil BC Homo erectus had already pioneered the
global trek to Asia and Europe.
(PacDis, Spg. 96, p.46)
1.2Mil BC In 2007 Spanish researchers said they
had unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which
they estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered
in western Europe.
(AFP, 6/29/07)

1.1Mil BC In 2008 scientists reported fossils,
found in a cave in northern Spain, of Homo antecessor, that dated to
before this time.
(SFC, 3/27/08, p.A5)